In English:

Laajasalo – the biggest island of Helsinki and Helsinki’s 49th district in eastern Helsinki

Part 2.

Visiting Laajasalo (Degerö in Swedish) is easy. Take metro which goes to Itäkeskus or Myllypuro. Hop off at Herttoniemi subway station. Walk out of subway station and take some of these buses: 84 – Gunillankallio, 85 – Jollas , 88 and 88B – Kaitalahti and Kruunuvuorenranta, 89 – Yliskylä. There are other bus routes, but I suggest to You these routes. You can hop off anytime or at final stop. Where You decide to hop off, start walking. As soon as possible, choose a path. Everywhere on the island, there are cycling and walking paths. Selecting path, they give to You an excellent way to explore the island. Getting lost – no, because every path lead to some road and on roads there is traffic. When returning all the busses are marked…

Racetrack Playa is home to an enduring Death Valley mystery. Littered across the surface of this dry lake, also called a “playa,” are hundreds of rocks — some weighing as much as 320 kilograms (700 pounds) — that seem to have been dragged across the ground, leaving synchronized trails that can stretch for hundreds of meters.

What powerful force could be moving them? Researchers have investigated this question since the 1940s, but no one has seen the process in action — until now.

In a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE on Aug. 27, a team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, paleobiologist Richard Norris reports on first-hand observations of the phenomenon.

Because the stones can sit for a decade or more without moving, the researchers did not originally expect to see motion in person. Instead, they decided to monitor the rocks remotely by installing a…

A trip to Bulgaria

Un voyage en Bulgarie

Rick Steves’ Europe Travel Guide | Check your local public television station for this Rick Steves’ Europe episode

Bulgaria, so mysterious, has a vivid identity as a crossroads of the Balkans. We’ll trace the country’s complex history, from ancient Thracian tombs to medieval Orthodox Christian monasteries to Soviet monuments. And we’ll enjoy an intimate taste of contemporary culture: the yellow brick road of Sofia; the gregarious craftspeople of the medieval capital, Veliko Tarnovo; and the thriving pedestrian zones of cosmopolitan Plovdiv.

ricksteves.com for more information about this destination and other destinations in Europe.